>> Yes, php is only for web. > > Absolutely false. Most of my standalone, command-line scripts for > manipulating my unix users in LDAP are written in PHP, although we're > rewriting them in python. > > Although I can't think of a single app written in php that's not web- > based (other than standalone scripts I have written), there are up-to- > date php bindings for GTK: http://gtk.php.net/ > > Michael
Fair enough, this has been possible due to the enormous popularity of php. You can also hit a nail with your shoe instead of using a hammer, and if you try hard you may even succeed. You can also digg a a grave with a spoon instead of a shovel, and after a couple of days you'll be finished. You may be able to use php to create a stand alone app, but php was created with the solely purpose of being a tool for creating dynamic web sites. And you have to admit that using php for a non-web app is like trying to fit a a square into a round hole. Php is no more than a simplified C-ish language, dynamically typed with a lot of functions aimed at web tasks. Without these built-in functions, there's little you can do with it in your web apps. On the otehr hand, you don't need a thousand built-in functions in python for achieving every single task on a web site. You just write them, often with just a couple of lines, because the language is that flexible an consice. You don't have to remember each and every function for every task, this is ridiculuous. I think that even as a general purpose language, python is still much more adecuate, fast, fun and flexible than php for building web apps. Luis -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
